'Literal Miracle': Rock-Climbing Teen Dies, Then Comes Back to Life After Being Pronounced Dead

By Amanda Thomason April 18, 2023 at 12:38pm

Sammy Berko, an athletic 16-year-old from Texas, was rock climbing earlier this year when he went into cardiac arrest.

He’d climbed to the top at the rock gym, rung the bell, and then gone completely limp.

At first people thought he was pranking them, but when he didn’t snap out of it, the terrible realization that something was very wrong began to set in.

Paramedics arrived and administered CPR, but Sammy showed no signs of life. He was transported to a hospital, where they performed more life-saving measures, but still Sammy showed no signs of life.

After trying everything, and two hours after his heart had stopped, he was pronounced dead. The medical team left to give the grieving family some privacy, and his parents, Craig and Jennifer Berko, said their goodbyes.

“I started talking to him, just telling him how much I love him and sorry that we didn’t know how to save him,” Jennifer told KRIV-TV. “I started praying, and suddenly my husband said, ‘Oh my gosh, he’s — he’s moving.'”

Sammy was breathing and his heart was pumping. The doctors said they’d never seen anything like it, according to what the Berkos shared on their GoFundMe page.

Sammy has no recollection of the traumatic event.

“I don’t remember anything about the day it happened,” he said. “The last thing I remember is the night before we had to sign waivers online [for the rock climbing gym], and then I woke up.”

“I woke up in the transitional ICU and that’s the first thing I remember. The first thing I remember was literally my dad going, ‘OK, this is what happened and you better remember it this time,’ because he said it so many times.”

Dr. Stacey Hall, who is overseeing Sammy’s recovery, said there is no real medical explanation for why he came back to life.

“I was very struck by his story,” Hall said. “It’s very gripping and very unusual. This is a young man who had this catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia, which is a super rare genetic disorder that affects his heart. … To me, he’s a literal miracle.”

Sadly, the Berko family had lost another son three years before to the same genetic condition that Sammy has. Now that they are aware of the issue, Sammy and Jennifer are taking medication to prevent any more episodes.

Sammy is alive, but he’s having to relearn a lot of the motion he took for granted as an active teenager after suffering a spinal injury resulting from his ordeal. He uses a wheelchair but has a lot of hope for the future.

“I knew it would be a weird, crazy experience learning to walk again,” he said. “I notice that I’m better every day. I’m doing new things every single day.”

Submit a Correction →